Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 review

Tiger's still great, but he’s getting awfully stale

Pros

Playing in the U.S. Open

Sinking long putts with ease

Swift load times

Cons

$40 pricetag for a $20 game

Lack of interesting PGA Pros

Online play signup process

For years, Tiger Woods games had been among our favorite PSP titles. Perfectly suited for Sony’s portable machine, they’d consistently delivered compelling links experiences, from addictive player-building careers to nifty multiplayer modes. While this season’s good walk spoiled doesn’t break much new ground, it’s still a well-oiled machine that has us grippin’ and rippin’.

Above: PS2 screen

As always, the collectible-laden PGA Tour mode is the heart of the matter. You create and customize a new golfer to your liking, then sign up for the rigors of a three-year swing through scads of tournaments, challenges, and mini-games. Each bit of success you have puts cash in your coffers, from a $50 bonus for hitting the green in regulation to a six-figure check for major tournament victories. Over time, you’ll transform from an anonymous hopeful into a sponsorship-laden, cutting-edge equipment-sporting superman.

Chances are it won’t take too long for you to head to the top of leaderboards, as the standard difficulty is startlingly easy – especially when you discover the dynamic feedback of the Putt Preview. Every time you make an aiming adjustment, you can reload the preview and see if your shot will be on target. Once we figured this out, sinking 50-foot eagle putts was a snap, and our virtual bank account got fat quickly.

Above: PS2 screen

In addition to the Tour, a decent amount of other modes abound, including local and wi-fi multiplayer head-to-head matches, mini-games, and a new Tournament Challenge that’s a pleasant diversion from the “drudgery” of the Tour. The visuals remain hardy, and even include crowds to lend credence to all that clapping and hollering we’ve been hearing so many years now.

This year’s Tiger suffers from several issues, though – none of which are directly related to the solid gameplay. The $40 pricetag betrays the lack of significant new features or players, while the fact that the physical UMD is going the way of the cassette tape when the new PSP ships is a deterrent as well. The reality is that you can pick up an older, cheaper portable Tiger game and have mostly the same experience; other than a few new courses, mildly affecting weather, and a properly branded U.S. Open Championship, there’s nothing of major substance at hand that hasn’t already been seen before.

Above: PS2 screen

At least Tiger’s PSP offering this year resembles a full-fledged title (unlike his counterpart on the PS2, which is embarrassingly devoid of features). Even so, though, we can’t justify shelling out 40 bucks for what amounts to a fresh coat of paint, no matter how well it plays.

Aug 4, 2009

More Info

Genre

Sports

Description

We could’ve cut-and-pasted our review from last year and no one would’ve ever noticed (except our editors).